Chepstow Castle

Oldest surviving stone fortification within Great Britain, Chepstow Castle was commissioned in 1067, one year after the Norman conquest of England by Lord William fitzOsbern as the most southerly castle in a chain built along the Welsh border.

The castle is located on top of cliffs overlooking the River Wye at an ancient strategic crossing point. While seeing little action for the next five centuries, it was held by Monmouthshire Royalists in the English Civil War in 1645 and 1648 against Gloucestershire Parliamentarian, before eventually falling into Roundhead hands.

By the end of the seventeenth century, the castle was of little military value, and fell into disrepair, records suggest it was used as a farmyard and glass factory, but by the late eighteenth century it became a popular tourist destination, especially with day-trippers from the bustling nearby port of Bristol.